I’ve had Final Fantasy XIV on a bit of a pause for the last week or more. This wasn’t intentional, I just cannot resist the siren song of The Secret World during the holidays. (Ok, I’m always in TSW to some degree, but when events are happening I get sucked in all the more.) I’ll save the in-depth talk about why for another day, but I’ll at least give an update.

While we don’t have a new mission this year as the team focuses on upcoming content, we do have every mission from previous years to enjoy, as well as some new cosmetic items. With TSW being the one game in which I feel a burning need to have as many different clothes as possible, and with the previous missions being some of my favorites next to Halloween…yeah, that’s plenty enough to keep me entertained.

It always amuses me when I discuss holiday content in MMO’s with friends who don’t play TSW. They have cute little missions with elves and presents and I’ve got an apocalypse to prevent, Krampuses (Krampi?), Hels, and other World Bosses to defeat, and the body of Saint Nicholas to retrieve. If I’m on one of my Lumies, there’s also the lovely mission turn-ins from Kirsten Geary to look forward to…

..though to be fair, I do rather like the Dragon’s text as well.

In the process of running my low-level alts through some of the holiday content, my desire to take them through the story has been rekindled. I’m trying to hold off on that until I can do it on stream, which should be Soon™. I’ve successfully garbed them in holiday gear though, giving me four characters in four different seasonally appropriate outfits! 😛 (Again, only in this game would that excite me, and only here would I have to admit I have enough for many more alts.)

When the holiday content went live, we also got other new content with the release of Issue 13. I’m only about halfway through the new missions on my main thanks to the distraction of the events, but they’ve been very good so far – with some returning friends and…well, not-friends. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that story and mission content in TSW continues to be superior to other MMO’s and often even to single player games I play.

I’ll hold off on details about the missions to avoid spoilers for those who haven’t played yet, but add that to the list of things coming Soon™!

More in TSW

In related news, I’m hugely excited to know I’ll be able to return to Beyond the Veil in the very near future. I miss my friends on cast, the viewers and listeners, the conversations, and being rather more up-to-date with the community at large. I’m so lucky to be a part of it and can’t wait to get back.

I’d be remiss not mentioning we’ve had to say goodbye to one of the most awesome community managers anyone could wish for as he moves on to Operation Supply Drop. I’m not alone in wishing Tomium luck in all things, even if it’s a bit late now. Happily, Odonoptera (or Bobbobbobptera, however you prefer) has joined the team and we’re all looking forward to his many sweaters, I mean, having an awesome new CM.

As I mentioned last time I posted, Beth Barnes (DJPsywarrior) decided to do something amazing by setting up a TSW community page for donations to the Malala Fund. I’m happy to say we not only surpassed our goal of $10,000 long before the end of the year, but Funcom itself gave the donation that first pushed us over the goal. It’s tough to even find words on the topic – I know I say a lot about how amazing the TSW team and community are, but some days I’m not sure if I can say it enough. The page (http://tswproject.org/) is still up and taking donations, for anyone who’d like to help out even more.

Gryph is Playing and Livestreams

Even before the current Steam Sale, I’d already picked up more games to add to my backlog. As I have the time and inclination, that means “Gryph is Playing” posts. I’ve dipped into Guacamelee, Psychonauts, and Manos: The Hands of Fate in just the last couple weeks, with many, many more left to dig into.

I STILL haven’t finished Dreamfall: Chapters much to my chagrin, and still need to do a live playthrough of The Park. Speaking of live playthroughs, I most definitely plan on streaming again once I recover from the holidays. Streaming was one of the reasons I upgraded my computer in the first place, after all!

It’s old news now, but I backed Bring Back MST3K during the Kickstarter, and was thrilled when they met and then surpassed their goal. MST3K was one of those shows my brother and I bonded over when we were younger, and remains a favorite of mine. I’m excited to see what they do with a new cast, but more than that it just makes me smile to know the show has so much support. I count the show as one of the best things to come out of Minnesota, even if they won’t be filming there this time around.

I have not seen the new Star Wars movie yet, but hope to fix that this weekend. I’m hearing so many good things about it and I’m relieved it’s not going to be another experience like the prequels. (Note: If you like the prequels more power to you and I’m not going to slam you for it.)

I’m also still ridiculously thrilled that Twitch decided to continue streaming The Joy of Painting on Mondays. I grew up watching Bob Ross on PBS and only realized as an adult how lucky that makes me. Sometimes, everyone needs to hear that there’s no such thing as mistakes and things are all going to be okay.

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As always, a huge thanks to my readers and all my friends – both those I’ve met online and offline. I never planned on moving away from many of of my friends years ago, before my mom needed me at home, and right now I’m very conscious of how lucky I am to know so many wonderful people in spite of that. If you’re celebrating things this month I wish you joy in your celebrations, but more than that I wish you joy in general and thank you for the joy you give me year-round.